Because of COVID-19 restrictions, there weren’t any OSAA-sponsored football playoffs following the six-week spring season in April — and no official state champion. However, if there were playoffs, the unbeaten Dufur High Rangers would’ve been favored to win their 11th OSAA Class 1A eight-man football championship. That said, few would argue that it’s appropriate to refer to the Rangers as the defending champs.
It’s a new season now, just five months after Dufur’s spectacular spring schedule concluded with a perfect 5-0 record, including a thrilling 40-38 season-ending win April 3 over the Adrian Antelopes at Dufur High School. Although they lost eight talented seniors to graduation, Coach Jack Henderson’s Rangers will certainly be the cream of the crop again in eight-man football.
“We’re just glad to be playing football again for sure and hopefully we’ll resume the normal playoff schedule in the fall,” said Henderson, whose assistant coaches include CS Little, Arthur Smith, Jason Walters, and Steven Bailey. “We have a good group of 15 kids, but that’s fewer than we normally have and it’s the lowest turnout we’ve had in 10 years. We’ve won with 14 kids, and we’ve won with 30. So, no matter how many we have, we’ll just try to get them pointed in the right direction.”
The Rangers will have 11 players returning from that powerhouse squad that had a dominating performance throughout the abbreviated spring season. The explosive Ranger offensive attack will be led by junior quarterback/defensive back Joshua Taylor and sophomore running back/linebacker Cody Phillips.
“Our offensive line, and defensive line, is going to be the strength of our team,” said Henderson, 59, in his 36th year as Dufur’s coach. “Our center, August Harvey, has played very well in practice and he’s looking very good. Senior Jacob Jones, who is a fullback and defensive tackle, is also one of our key players as well on the team along with sophomore defensive end/tight end Olson Meanus. All of the kids are working really hard and that’s a good thing to see.”
Two players who didn’t play in the spring and will be playing football for the first time since 2019, are seniors Isaac Anthony and Jerald Hernandez. Henderson says he’s very happy to have these two players back on the team. Anthony, Hernandez, Jones, and Payton Beeks are the only Dufur seniors.
Following a jamboree Friday at St. Paul, Dufur opens the season at home in a nonleague matchup Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. versus the Powder Valley Badgers. Powder Valley posted a 4-2 spring mark, which included a 48-36 loss to the Rangers March 23 at Dufur. Dufur’s eight-game Special District 2 schedule includes three home contests and five on the road.
Dufur football notes: The Eight-Man Classic, a 14-team event originally scheduled Sept. 2-4 in Dufur has been canceled due to the increase of COVID-19 cases. The popular event was last held in 2018, but it will now resume in 2022. “We had to pull the plug on the Classic because of the high rate of COVID cases,” said Henderson. “With several thousand people expected to be here, we just decided that we needed to be more conservative and just make sure that we can play our regular season without any interruptions. We were excited about hosting the classic again, which is a great event and a great fundraiser, but there will just be too many people here and it wouldn’t feel too good with the high number of COVID cases. It’s just another way that we can protect the kids. It’s too bad, because it’s a great event that people statewide look forward to and, hopefully, we can get it back here next year.”
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.